Wonderland

This would be the Summer Wonderland that we enjoyed only a month ago in Orlando, FL. We love you Summer Wonderland.

And this would be the Winter Wonderland where we now reside. It is beautiful. The snow is great for this Christmas time. How wonderful that we can be here to enjoy it. The kids had three snow days last week. Even Jay had two and a half days off from work. FUN FUN FUN!!! These were their first Snow Days ever. (Maybe we can't technically say the first. There was that day in Georgia when they got out of school because it was supposed to snow, or be really cold, or something. It ended up being 60 degrees, but everyone had a great day out of school regardless. So, no school, but no snow, either.) Anyway, they had a blast. We all did.

We are really enjoying living so close to family. We can't say enough how wonderful it is. We absolutely love it. It isn't just a vacation where we feel like we need to cram a year's worth of fun into one short week (especially because we never would succeed.)

Many of you may be wondering how we are adapting with the weather here. Did you know that the Winter Wonderland, as beautiful as it is, is FREEZING!!! Like for real FREEZING! Just want to make sure that no one misunderstood. We thought it would take a lot longer to acclimate, though. When it is 22 degrees out and you hear yourself saying, "Wow, it's a nice day." It just makes you wonder how you got to that point in less than a month. Oh, that would be the sub-zero temperatures that we had yesterday. You know, where you get frost bite on your face because it was exposed for the 5 seconds that you are outside. Yep, it is amazing how quickly 22 degrees feels like a nice day.

How far away are our Spring and Summer Wonderlands?

Not Busy, Just a Wee Bit Active

This is what we've been doing lately, which is why it's been a wee bit hard to find time to blog (that should totally give us a pass this time!):

And here's a picture that just makes us laugh!

Push-Up Party

"What is that?" we hear you ask. It is kind of shocking that you don't know. But we will go ahead and explain it anyway.

All the credit goes to cuteness #2. "Can I have a push-up party?" Our response, which might have been similar to yours, was "what's a push-up party?"

A little disappointed that we didn't immediately get it he said, "You know, for doing 100 push-ups."

Later we heard him telling the other kids that he was doing 10 push-ups a day and he only had 30 push-ups left. Uh, back up. If there is going to be a party, those 100 push-ups all need to be done in one day. So, he did. He did 100 push-ups in one day and he had a party. He made up some invitations and he made the agenda (rules and activities) for the party. It was pretty cute. Except, the race to 100 push-ups at the party might not have been everyone's favorite part. I couldn't tell. But this was a big hit.

C'mon, it's pretty clever. What else is there to do do? (Besides the 100 push-up race, of course.) Cuteness Kid #2 was excited that he got to put "Eat push-ups" on his list of activities. He was pretty sure everyone was going to be confused.

All in all it was a big hit. Once we both get to be doing 100 push-ups in one day we are totally going to throw one for us. (One of us might already be doing 100 push-ups every day, and the other might not even be remotely close. Whatever.) But when it happens we are totally having a party and we can all do MORE push-ups and then eat the yummy push-up pops. But, per the rules, "No Birthday Presents, Please!"

5 months

Where does the time go?

Ya gotta love it

When you hear cuteness kid say "help me pwease" and you turn around and see this

Can you tell that his shirt is soaking? Well, it is. As is the rest of him. As you can see he is trying to take his shirt off and needs help. What you can't see is that he already successfully removed the rest of his clothing.

Perhaps I should give a little history. We put our kiddie pool up against the fence, you know, so it wouldn't get full of rain water. At some point it must have decided to not be up against the fence because it is a pool after all and should be full of water, especially when lots of rain is coming. So, yesterday, I have three boys come into the house, dripping water, saying they need a shower. They most certainly do. I promptly go to dump water out of said pool. Not so easy when it is FULL of heavy water.

No problem, there's a plug, I'll pull it out. It's stuck, no good. Lots of lifting and shifting to get even some of it to spill over and out to make it easier. Maybe got a gallon. Maybe not. Not working so much. Cuteness kid running around backyard without clothes on. Ushering back to shower, and making sure they stay there until they are good and clean and smelling nice. While the pool is still FULL of lots of water. Out of sight, out of mind. Still was today when the boys and their friend that I was watching went out back to play...

Am I a bad mom for posting these?

Thank you Matthew for keeping your clothes on.

Cuteness kid that doesn't belong in my numbering system.

Cuteness kid #3 making one of his faces. I always forget the intent behind them because they always change. But they always make me laugh.

So, I did what anyone would do. Swimsuits = I don't have to shower you right now just to shower you in 20 minutes when you do the same thing again 'cuz I'm to weak to dump out the swimming pool.

And just 'cuz I know you were wondering...

And the results are in

We know you are all dying to know what happed. We were going to just post the video up, but the program we need seems to no longer be on our computer. The disc to put it on our computer seems to have disappeared. (Not totally convinced that cuteness #4 did not dispose of it. He went [is maybe still going through] a phase where he likes to just throw things away.)

We'll try not to deprive you to the best of our ability. So here is what happened.

***

I put the cookies in a dish on the counter and told them to come get one. Matthew is the first to grab one and start to walk away. He examines it and then goes to switch it for a different one.

Mikayla: "Okay, don't take a bite out of them and then...(she pauses here and it looks like she is starting to notice that maybe not all is right.) ...put them back, Matt."

At this point Ethan grabs a cookie and starts eating and watching Mikayla while she is talking.

Matthew: "No, these were already bite."

Mikayla: "Well, don't bite them again." (She starts shuffling through the cookies, finally picks one and just kind of holds it up to her mouth.)

Jayden starts searching through the cookies, picking them up one at a time to examine them, sets it down and reaches for another. Finally he says:

Jayden: "Umm, why are all of them bitten, mom?"

I am trying to hold back a laugh, but not all that successfully.

Jayden: Now with a smile on his face as sees me laughing. "Mom, why are all of them bitten?"

Me: "Ethan got into them last night."

Lots of laughing and giggling as Jayden justs grabs a cookie and they all start munching away.

Me: "Is that funny Ethan?"

Ethan: With a big smile on his face and a mouthful of cookie, "I bit!"

***

And to end with a picture

I'll give you one guess as to who I found gagging on a glob of dough literally minutes before I put the bread in the oven. Anyone, anyone???

What do you get...

When you have yummy cookies...

And cuteness kid #4 who is supposed to be in bed, but obviously isn't?

THIS!!!

I'm not sure if you can tell, but there is at least one bite taken out of every single cookie that was left in our house. (This is not where yummy cookies were when cuteness kid went to bed.)

*Just to clarify, picture of cuteness kid not taken tonight. By the time I got the camera he actually WAS in bed.

So, one of three things will happen tomorrow.

a) Cuteness siblings will not want to eat cookies because "Ewwww, there's a bite in it!"

b) Cuteness siblings will eat cookies

c) Cuteness siblings will say "Ewwww," and then proceed to eat cookies anyway. (I mean, c'mon, they are yummy Andes Mint Cookies.)

Should we post a poll to see who knows our kids the best?

God, Family, and Country

This last week I had to complete a survey at work about the factors that influence me to either stay in or get out of the Air Force. Most of the questions were the "to-what-extent-do-you-agree-or-disagree-with-the-following-statement" type of questions, but one of the questions asked me to fill in my own comments:

"Please provide any comments you may have pertaining to what influences your career decision."

As I thought about my response to that question, it really just hit me. This is my response:

"The single biggest drawback to my Air Force service is the time I have to spend away from my family. My priorities in life are (in this order) my God, my family, and my country. Being away from family for my country is a sacrifice and a burden. That being said, I understand the need, and I understand that someone has to do it. My family understands, too. Were it not for a supportive family, I would not stay in the Air Force. I feel, however, that those times when I am away from my family, I am serving not only my country, but I am also serving my family and my God. Because of that conviction, I choose to remain in the Air Force, despite having to leave my family from time to time. This period of my life will not last forever; I hope to be able make a difference while I can."

Last Fling of Summer

We have had a crazy summer. We thought about blogging huge posts to try and catch up, but since that would be a huge undertaking (and we don't do so well with the blog when the undertakings are not so big) we decided rather than not blog at all because we are avoiding that post, we would just post about our end of summer trip and see if we shock anyone that we are posting at all.

We drove up to Gatlinburg for a few days. We decided to take the 12 minute longer route that took us through Smokey Mountain National Forest. The extra 12 minutes were definitely worth it. It was gorgeous.

We stayed at a hotel in Gatilinburg, and didn't do anything in the town itself other than drive through it. We had a blast just hanging out in our hotel and doing some major pool-hopping (there were three pools; the last one we went to was our favorite).

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures. If there are too many, then don't look at them. If there are not too many, then enjoy! :) (This is a mere fraction of the over 500 pictures that we took, so we narrowed it down a ton. This is why we don't post very often! Oh, and we're lazy.)

Blueberry Muffins

Yummy Muffins

We decided to start a blog with all our favorite recipes on it. That way, when we are visiting family and friends and we want to make something, we will have access to the recipes. For anyone interested, Our Chocolate Yumminess Essence of Angel Cake is already out there, so feel free to check it out. Enjoy!

It is Official

Our house is up for sale!














So.......Anyone interested?!? :)

Chocolate Yumminess

Where are the words to describe this cake?

Yumminess. Decadent. Divine.

Perfection!

We made this cake together. The center is homemade-from-scratch-no-kidding-honest-to-goodness-yumminess chocolate mousse. That we made ourselves. With no help. All by ourselves. (OK, so we watched a youtube clip showing us how, but we did it!) The frosting is the essence of perfection. It is the BEST chocolate frosting ever. And this is coming from people who don't like frosting, but this is no mere frosting. In fact, we should probably just call it "whipped essence of angels." In fact, that is what we will call it. So, our Whipped Essence of Angels Mousse cake is the greatest thing ever.

Too bad all of you only get to see a picture of it and didn't get to eat any!